Tom Scavo
Tom Scavo is the pushover husband of Lynette Scavo. The former high school nerd, trying to be "cool" dad, always took the "back seat" in his marriage, and left his assertive and controlling wife to the decision making. He's the father of six children, and when his first sons were born, he built up a career as a successful businessman. However, his career withered away and he decided to open a pizzeria when he developed a midlife crisis. When the business failed, he tried to get back into the world of business, pulling him and his wife apart, to the point of separation. He then found love with a new woman, Jane. After a year of separation, he and Jane split and Tom and Lynette reconciled and continued their marriage. Biography 'Early Life' Tom is the son of Rodney and Allison Scavo. He is the brother of Theresa and Peter. ("Your Fault", "Excited and Scared") Later, he works in the advertising section. One day, he meets a young woman and has sex with her. This affair has lasted one night, but he doesn't learn this woman was pregnant of him. ("Remember, Part 1") Later, he meets and works with Lynette Lindquist. Shallowly, the two persons begin a love affair together. ("Women and Death") But, after asked Lynette in marriage, the two persons have chosen to broke up. During Lynette was at the home of her mother, Tom had an affair with Renee Perry, Lynette's best friend college, during one week. ("Assassins") However, Tom marries with Lynette, finally. Later, Tom decided to offer an house to Lynette, who was pregnant of twins, in Wisteria Lane. ("Women and Death", "Remember, Part 1") Later, Tom and Lynette had two others children, one boy and one girl. 'Season 1' When Tom is introduced, he is a successful working man. As the breadwinner of the family, he is often gone on business trips and evening work hours, leaving Lynette stressed about how to manage the household. He also seemsto be completely oblivious to Lynette's concerns and problems. Still, he is supportive of Lynette and often agrees that he should take on more responsibility around the house. Tom decides to become a stay-at-home-dad after he loses his promotion to Annabel and subsequently quits his job. He seems to genuinely care about Lynette, being prepared to discuss family matters with her if she feels that they need to. When Annabel Foster, Tom's ex-girlfriend, gets a job where Tom works, Lynette becomes extremely jealous. Tom quits his work when Annabel gets the promotion he felt he deserved, thus prompting Lynette to go back to work. 'Season 2' Tom's stint as a stay-at-home-dad is not as succesful as Lynette hopes. He leaves the house a mess for Lynette to clean, often letting the children run off and get into some sticky situations. When an opportunity comes up for Tom to go to work, the Scavo's hire a nanny, only to fire her when Tom becomes sexually atrracted to her. Tom returns to the workplace, sharing an employer with his wife for the second time. But when Lynette's boss asks Lynette to send instant messages to his wife to help him heat up his sex life, his wife finds out and threatens she'll leave him unless he fires the person who sent the IMs. Since Lynette is too valuable to the company's success, he tells his wife it was Tom and decides to fire him instead. Tom decides to have a chat with Ed. Through a 'forensic accountant' Ed discovered that Tom has been falsifying expense reports. It ends up with Tom punching Ed in the face. Since the necessary grounds of dismissal have been met, double grounds in fact, Tom is fired. Tom slips off Atlantic City telling Lynette he has a job interview there, butTom is found out to be meeting another woman after Lynette follows him and sees first hand what she believes to be them embracing. Although Lynette initially wants a seperation, Tom explains his relationship to Nora and the seperation is called off. 'Season 3' It is later found out that this woman is Nora Huntington, a woman with whom he had a one night stand years before he had met Lynette. In the second season finale it is revealed that she had apparently conceived his child, a daughter named Kayla Huntington, from their one night stand. This is news to Tom as the one night stand took place about eleven years ago and Nora had never told him about her pregnancy. Tom later confesses to Lynette that he wishes to go into the business of pizza-making. Nora however consistently undermines him behind his back and tries to get Lynette to tell him to drop the idea. Her plan is to show support to Tom, to get him back from Lynette. Tom, however, does not fall for Nora and rejects her seduction. He tells Lynette about it, who threatens Nora never to speak to Tom again. Tom and Lynette plan to battle for Kayla's custody, but before anything happens, Nora gets shot and dies during the hostage crisis in the local supermarket. Lynette promises the dying woman to take care of Kayla. He then goes on with his pizza place and together with Lynette's help get it ready for the grand opening although not without some troubles along the way. He then tries to celebrate his 9th wedding anniversary with Lynette but it turns into a disaster. Yet they still have anniversary sex when they realize that nothing is worse than the routine. In the episode, "Dress Big" Lynette and Tom fight over the restaurant uniforms, and when Tom does not come home, Lynette leaves Gabrielle and Susan to babysit the children and goes to confront Tom, discovering him lying on the floor of the restauarant unconscious. Lynette is now in charge of the restaurant as Tom is unable to do so (his back being thrown out again and needing surgery). Tom and Lynette's relationship continues to regress with the new manager, Rick, on the scene. He used to be a chef at his former job, which was working at a four-star restaurant. To deal with the stress of the job, he took cocaine, but kicked the habit. Because of his former cocaine addiction, Tom doesn't approve with Lynette decision to hire him. He attempts to bring in new types of food and to change the menu at the pizza parlour. Despite Rick's cooking skills, Tom doesn't feel the need to change the menu. Lynette and Tom argue about this and despite Tom's decision, Lynette goes over his head and changes the menu. Kayla then finds a review of the pizzeria in the paper and reads the report on how they've become a much better place now they've changed the menu to Tom, who feels threatened and inferior by this. Lynette begins to have growing feelings for Rick and stays late at the restaurant every night. Tom and the kids come to the pizzeria to surprise her, where Kayla sees chemistry between Lynette and Rick. Kayla tells Tom she thinks Lynette likes Rick, and Tom suggests to Lynette he should come back to work and fire Rick, only to receive objections from Lynette. Tom becomes aware of the dangers of Lynette cheating. After Lynette getting stuck with him in a freezer as a result of the pizzeria being robbed, the two cuddle close together. Tom confronts Rick after seeing a surveillance tape, in which Lynette and Rick were having dinner together before the pizzeria was robbed. Tom makes a speech about how although his marriage to Lynette is shaky, it is rock solid and Rick would never break it up. Tom asks Rick to quit, and he says he won't leave unless Lynette fires him personally, because "she doesn't want him gone". Rick and Lynette are alone in the restaurant and Rick talks about his lunch with Tom. He said he had feelings for her. He told her it was obvious she has feelings for him. This enraged Lynette and she fired him. After finding out Tom was returning to work, Lynette sobbed in her bathroom, obviously distraught over the loss of Rick. Lynette and Tom’s marriage continues to decline and Lynette doesn't speak to Tom for five days. In an attempt to rebuild their marriage, Tom gets his old college friend and marriage councillor to try and speak to them without Lynette knowing, but she clocks on to Tom’s actions and becomes even more frustrated with him over his 'ambush therapy'. With Tom’s doctor informing him on his back recovery, Tom suggests to Lynette they have sex as it's the only way they can communicate unless they talk instead. Lynette agrees to sex and refuses to talk but becomes violent with Tom. In a moment of anger, Tom seizes Lynette and asks why she's mad at him, and she reveals it's because he had lunch with Rick and because she had to fire him. Lynette then shoves Tom back onto the bed, hurting his back. Toms back spasms and he moves suddenly causing Lynette to fall off the bed, banging her head on the side table. She goes to hospital for her injury and Tom finds out Lynette fell for Rick and misses him. The doctor performs a CAT scan on Lynette and finds swollen lymph nodes and suggests they do a biopsy as it could be Lymphoma. 'Season 4' In the fourth series Lynette kicks Tom out of her chemotherapy for being too emotional, so Gabrielle attends her sessions with Lynette. Meanwhile, in the third episode "The Game" Tom attends Susan's small games party however Lynette remains at home because she is sick, Lynette's mother Stella secretly gets marijuana from Andrew and bakes it in some brownies she makes for Lynette so that it would ease Lynette's pain. It works and Lynette attends Susan's party high and she had brought the drugged brownies with her for everyone else to have. Stella arrives over and tells Tom why no one can have a brownie and Tom takes them off everyone before they can eat them but ends up accidentally pushing Gabrielle into new resident Adam Mayfair and spills wine all done him which causes a feud between Gabrielle and Adam's wife Katherine Mayfair. Tom later appears at the end of the episode when Lynette discovers the truth from him about what Stella did. Tom is later thrilled a few episodes later when the doctor reveals Lynette's cancer has been completely cleared. After Lynette and Tom thought Rick was gone for good, he opened a restaurant down the block. Tom tells Lynette that he was annoyed when Rick came to tell them about the grand opening of his restaurant and that he threw a brick into the restaurant, smashing the window. Then days later Rick's restaurant was up in flames, Lynette suspected Tom, but it was later revealed that Kayla convinced Porter and Preston to burn it down. While Porter and Preston were facing their punishment Tom suggests therapy for the boys, but Lynette refuses. Then when Lynette finds out that it was Kayla's idea to set the fire, Lynette wants to take her for therapy, but this time, Tom refuses and gets annoyed that she is willing to take her step-daughter for therapy, but not her own sons. So Lynette goes behind Tom's back to take her to therapy, but Kayla threatens to call the police about what the boys did if she has to see the shrink. Later in the season, Kayla starts to rebel against Lynette and she is trying to get Lynette sent away because she blames Lynette for her mother being shot. Kayla threatens to hurt Penny, so Lynette slaps Kayla in a shopping mall. Then, Lynette convinces Tom to get a therapist to watch Kayla's behaviour, she fakes to be the perfect child. After, Kayla pretends that Lynette burned her with a curling iron, and reports it to the police, Lynette is sent to jail and is not allowed within 50ft of all her children. Lynette is so upset that she tells Tom to "Fix it now!" so he comes up with a plan to get Kayla to confess to everything, she does eventually crack and he recorded on his phone. In the end, Tom makes a heart-breaking decision to sent Kayla to live with Nora's parents. 'Time Jump' TBA 'Season 5' Lynette enters her restaurant to find her teenage twins Porter and Preston have set up an illegal casino, with drinks. She sends the twins’ friends home. She’s upset her boys have been doing this -- for a month -- and grounds them, even though homecoming is coming up. As Tom cleans his convertible, Lynette tells Tom to talk to the boys about their misbehavior. But later, as she’s listening in to Tom’s conversation with the twins, she hears Tom laughing and enjoying himself. When Lynette confronts Tom, she realizes he’s enjoying living vicariously through their escapades, since he was such a nerd in high school. Lynette’s not happy to learn Tom ungrounded the boys so they could go to Homecoming. With Tom standing next to her, Lynette tells Porter and Preston they can go to Homecoming -- in Tom’s convertible, no less. Tom’s shocked by this, but Lynette hands the boys the keys to the car. Later, with the twins more than a half hour late coming home, Tom and Lynette talk. He needs to lay down the law because their kids are growing up and clearly haven’t learned what they need. The twins finally return home and Tom chews them out, grounds them, and knocks off the side mirror. He confides in Lynette he’s already bought a new mirror. Lynette finds it difficult to strike a conversation with Porter, so Parker introduce her a social website named "Silverfizz" which allows online chatting. Then, Lynette created an alter ego "Sara J" who is a teenage girl to chat with Porter. Tom warns her to stop chatting with Porter before things gets out of hand. Lynette refuses to listen and she is ecstatic to learn Porter has an interest in poetry. Her plan soon backfires when Porter falls for her and sends her an erotic poem. Panicked, she decides to write a Dear John letter to Porter to end the relationship. The situation turned worse when she accidentally signed off the message as "Love, Mom". Porter learns his crush is actually his mother and is heartbroken. Dave sees Tom’s cleaning out the garage. He invites Tom to watch a game on the TV in a few hours, but Tom’s stuck working in the garage. Lynette notes Tom has a huge pile of stuff from the garage he’s still keeping. She wants Tom to toss more stuff. Dave notes Tom’s bass and learns Tom used to jam. Dave plays the drums and would love to jam some time. Lynette finds Tom and Dave who are going to have a garage band with Orson and Mike. Tom thinks they can even get a couple of gigs. Lynette reminds Tom that he’s running a restaurant and being a husband and dad. Tom says Lynette can’t decide for him and he plays his bass. Tom and Dave practice while Lynette realizes, after 3 hours, that this phase of Tom’s is not passing fast enough. When Penny almost broke the guitar, Lynette decided to use this for her own uses; she made sure the guitar got destroyed, even as Tom was horrified. Dave knocks on Lynette’s door. He comes in; he’s heard about the accident and has bought Tom a guitar. Lynette doesn’t want to accept it. Dave says he thinks Tom needs the fun. He suggests Tom’s having a midlife crisis as he’s thinking of the things he’ll never be able to do. Dave wants Lynette to give the bass to Tom. As Dave rides his bike past the Scavos, he sees Tom getting his new guitar from Lynette. Tom and Dave audition a guy for their band; Tom’s enthusiastic about him, but Dave wants Mike in the band. Mary Alice talks about a surprise party that went badly. We see Lynette splash a drink in Tom’s face, Susan watch Jackson kiss Katherine, Gabrielle get mad with Carlos, and Orson asking Bree for a divorce. Lynette checks for gray hairs in the mirror before going to the party. She calls for Penny, who’s sitting in Tom’s convertible. She goes out; Penny wonders if Tom’s dying, as she heard her brothers talking about it. Lynette thinks Tom’s going to live to a ripe old age. She flashes back… Lynette rushes into a hospital to learn Tom got a massive electrical shock at the restaurant but was revived. Was there any tissue damage, though? It will take 36 hours to find out. In another flashback, Tom wakes up in his hospital bed to find Lynette there. He tells her he thought he was going to die in a pizza place. He wants to find more in his life. In yet another flashback, Tom surprises Lynette with his new car! She’s skeptical but he’s keeping the car. She gets in for a ride. Back in the present, Tom comes home, late for the party. He reveals he wants to take the kids out of school for a year and go around the country in an RV! Oh, and he’s already made plans to sell the pizzeria! Tom heads towards the party as Lynette stares at him in disbelief. Lynette suspects Tom is cheating on her. Anne Schilling, a real estate agent who may have her eye on Porter. There's a big fire at a club where the men's band is playing in a battle of the bands. One of the other bands competing is Cold Splash, played by real-life band Tokyo Police Club. Porter is arrested for arson and Lynette sells Tom's heirloom baseball to a Japanese businessman to raise bail, but then Lynette needs to get it back before Tom learns what she's done. Lynette and Tom are forced to sell the restaraunt to pay for Porter's court-case and bail so Tom decides to be a stay-at-home-dad. Tom soon grows bored of his decision and realizes that he wants to go back to college when Preston is being shown around. Tom takes the test and passes but Lynette tells him that she is pregnant with twins the day he finds this out. 'Season 6' The morning after Lynette finds out she is pregnant, Tom comes downstairs for breakfast. He asks Lynette what he smells and she says that it is her despair. He remarks that he thought it was waffles. Lynette then tells Tom that when their unborn twins finish high school Lynette and Tom will be in their 60's. She then goes on to say that Preston is moving out and that they can't keep having more twins every time one moves out and then storms off crying. Tom then mutters he can't handle Lynette's hormones for another 8 and a half months. During an ultrasound, Lynette doesn't seem excited about seeing her babies. Tom asks her why this is and Lynette tells him that she doesn't love them. Tom gets angry at this and tells her that when she holds her babies in her arms she will love them the same as all her others. The morning after Susan and Mike's wedding, Parker asks Lynette if she was getting sick earlier that morning. Lynette tells Parker that she did but lies and says that its is because she ate bad seafood the night before. Tom almost tells the kids the truth about Lynette's pregnancy but she tells him that she doesn't want anyone to know until after the first trimester. They are then interuppted by Karen McCluskey's screams and they all run outside. After learning of Julie Mayer's attack, everyone discusses why anyone would want to hurt her. Tom, Carlos and Orson then become suspicious of the Bolens and decide that it is time that they get to know them. Later, when Angie and Nick are bringing food over to Mike and Susan's, the guys stop them and start questioning Nick. When Nick isn't able to answer their questions, Angie comes over and tells Nick that his mother is on the phone and the two walk away. Tom is excited about becoming a dad again but Lynette tells him that she is not sure if she loves her unborn children. Tom then tells her that when she will hold them in her arms, she will love them with all her heart. These twins are Tom's sixth and seventh children. Tom was cheating in school because he was afraid of failing but he has since stopped. Lynette references that Tom had to drop out of college because Lynette was fired. Tom was the one who broke the news to Lynette that their unborn twin boy, Patrick didn't survive the surgery. However, after Lynette saved Gaby and Carlos' youngest daughter, Celia Solis, their friendship with mended and Tom got Lynette's job until if and when she decides to return. His oldest son, Porter, returned from Europe with a fiance, Irina. Tom seems to like her but his wife, Lynette, believes she is just with him for his college fund. Eddie Orlofsky moves in with the Scavo's, all of them unaware of Eddie's strangling crimes. He almost killed Julie Mayer, and killed a prostitute and a woman working at the coffee shop, and Irina. Lynette is unaware of this in the season finale Lynette figures out that it was Eddie who was strangling all of those girls. Lynette's water beaks and Eddie delivers Paige Scavo in his living room. 'Season 7' He is diagnosed with Postpartum Depression. He is then prescribed marijuana as a cure for this which stuns Lynette. In the episode "Let Me Entertain You", Tom decides to hire his own mother as a nanny for the new baby. After a big argument, Lynette fires her mother-in-law, but Tom overrules her, telling her that she is going to stay. After Lynette and Allison's talk, Tom's mother shows symptoms of dementia to Penny, unknown to Lynette and Tom. Tom and Lynette finally discover Allison's dementia on Halloween, after she collapses outside Gabrielle Solis' house after going out to buy more candy, despite Tom telling her they had plenty. Allison is later admitted to a nursing home and Tom and Lynette agree to visit her there. Tom is deeply upset by his mother's illness. In episode 9 Susan walks in on Tom and Lynette having sex on the nursery floor and is in awe at Tom's huge penis; she then confronts Lynette about why she has never mentioned it before. A drunken Renee reveals to Susan she once slept with him putting Susan in uncomfortable situation. When Susan is injured in a riot, a guilty Renee tells Tom she should reveal the truth but Tom insists she keep it quiet. Renee finally confesses to Lynette, revealing the affair took place when she and Tom were engaged but having one of their regular "break-ups." Lynette is naturally upset but keeps it quiet and begins a series of pranks against Tom as payback. When Renee finds out what Lynette is doing, she tells Tom about it. Tom confront Lynette and tells that he wanted to tell her about Renee, but there was never a good time for that because he did not want to ruin the wonderful life they have together. Lynette then forgives Tom. Tom finds himself getting a major promotion at a new company and enjoys the work. Lynette is concerned about his over-working but Tom tells her he feels more alive than ever. When Tom attends a conference, Lynette is upset that she's kept from the business talks and forced to attend spas and other projects with the other wives. She goes so far as to steal an ID from a woman only to find out she's the keynote speaker for a lecture. Back home, Tom snaps at Lynette that after so many years supporting her, it hurts that she can't do the same for him. Renee tells Lynette that she has to choose between her own wants or being a good wife. Tom then hires the duo to decorate his office like a Donald Trump-style boss but Lynette thinks that it is not right for him and goes a different way. Renee overrules her to give Tom the office he wants and Lynette yells at Tom over how he's changing but he retorts that he has to be this way in order to succeed and Lynette needs to stop thinking of him the way he's been at home the last several years. When Tom decides to book a luxurious holiday for the family and announces it Lynette is annoyed because Tom knew she already made plans for the Scavo family vacation and confronts Tom about why he did not consult her about it first if he wanted to change up her plan. The two then pitch to the kids what they think is the best holiday which leads to yet another fight between them; this time however they insult each other. Lynette calls Tom a "Pompous Ass" while Tom labels Lynette as a "Raving Bitch" leaving them to decide that it is only them who need to spend a holiday together. The holiday turns out badly and the relationship deteriorates and becomes extremely awkward. When they return home Tom leads Lynette to believe that he will be spending a while in an apartment near to his work offices. Before Lynette attends a street dinner party, Penny reveals to her that Tom had left her a note. Lynette is surprised and finds that Tom's unpacked suitcase from the holiday is not in the bedroom, convincing her that Tom had left her. After revealing to Susan that she thought Tom had left her, Lynette walks into her house, finding Tom, chopping up salad ingredients. He tells Lynette that he had only gone to buy the ingredients. Lynette questions him why it had taken him two hours, leading Tom to reveal that he had left but came back when he considered that Lynette would have to lie about where Tom was to her friends at the dinner party. The two talk for a while and Lynette confesses that when she thought Tom had left, she felt relieved, leading the pair to finally decide to separate. 'Season 8' TBA 'Later Life' Trivia *Tom is the only one of the big 8 characters (the others being Bree, Carlos, Gabrielle, Lynette, Mary Alice, Mike and Susan) who wasn't always a series regular. *In the four seasons that followed Kayla's departure from the series, Tom and his family (or anyone else, for that matter) didn't mention her on-screen a single time. 'Behind Closed Doors' *Despite the fact that Tom Scavo is one of the big 8 characters who remained regularly on the series from the pilot through the finale, actor Doug Savant was actually a recurring guest star in season 1. This happened because series creator Marc Cherry figured Tom would always be away on business trips, which was the driving factor for most of Lynette's stories in that season about being a stay-at-home mother with nearly no help. However, as the season went along and the character (and actor) became more popular, Tom started appearing more and, by season 2, Savant had joined the starring ensemble. Gallery Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character. 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